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“Don’t bother with the small talk. What are you doing here, Tyler? I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”
My stomach sinks when I notice the pain in her eyes, and I fall back against the couch cushion, letting out a regretful sigh.
“I shouldn’t have left you alone.”
My eyes dart around the room before landing on the picture of her and Oakley that sits on the fireplace mantle—proud and unforgiving. Another punch of regret hits me with full force, and I struggle to swallow past the lump of guilt in my throat.
“Yeah. You shouldn’t have. That was a real douchebag move.” She crosses her arms and stares me down with narrowed eyes.
“I remember nothing, Gracie,” I say truthfully. My eyes search hers for the hope that I already know is there, making me feel even guiltier than I was before. “I still can’t give you what you need. When I saw you lying there, I knew you would wake up and see me and think what happened was something more than what it was.”
Her eyes squeeze shut as I speak, her jaw set. “You do not know what I need. And you do not get to decide what I’ll think without even talking to me.” Her voice is as hard as ice and her cheeks flush in indignation. I look away.
“You left me in your bed alone, Tyler, like I was some twenty-dollar fuck you picked up on the corner,” Gracie growls, her eyes wide and dark.
“Never say that about yourself again,” I spit, my jaw tense, my blood boiling and I take a step towards her.. “You have no idea how wrong you are.”
Her words have triggered horrible images—memories—almost as if she had just switched the light switch on in a haunted basement. They run through my head, painting my vision with a thick crimson red.
The bruises covering Mom’s legs as she stumbled into the house hours when I was supposed to be tucked away in my bed. The ripped diner uniform that would cover her frail body as she dragged herself up the splintered wooden staircase. The muffled cries that spilled from beneath the closed bathroom door, the shower not loud enough to swallow them.
My eyes blur seconds and I turn away from Gracie’s curious gaze and stare at the floor-to-ceiling windows taking up the far wall.
“Okay. I’m sorry,” Gracie says a few moments later, her tone gentle, calm even. I watch through glassy eyes as she takes a step towards me, placing a cautious hand on my right arm and letting it rest there for a second, testing me. Then, when I don’t shrug her off, she comes closer and places her other hand on my left arm, pulling me into her embrace, and all thoughts leave my mind. The warm feeling stretching up my spine is foreign, unfamiliar, I’m having a hard time figuring out what it is as her fingertips rub over the tough material of my jacket.
“What are you doing?” I murmur, my barely audible.
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Her words roll over my body before fading into nothing. Slowly, she presses her cheek against my chest. Her steady breaths brush against my shirt, soaking through it and hitting my skin with an open, unspoken promise.
“I know.”
